A recent American Lawyer story, “Stockton Bankruptcy Yields Big Bucks for Orrick,” reports that after more than two years and nearly $14 million in legal fees, a U.S. Bankruptcy judge approved the city of Stockton, Calif.’s plan to exit from Chapter 9 bankruptcy.  Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe is raking in the lion’s share of those fees as lead counsel to the municipality.

With 298,000 residents, Stockton is the largest city in California by population to seek Chapter 9 protection.  From June 2012 to April 2014, it spent nearly $14 million on bankruptcy proceedings.  Orrick accrued a tab of about $10.5 million during the time and has added more since, according to the firm’s restructuring partner Marc Levinson in Sacramento, who is the city’s lead counsel on the bankruptcy proceedings.

The Northern California city, about 80 miles east of San Francisco, started to tumble toward bankruptcy in 2008 when the mortgage bubble burst and abruptly put an end to the city’s housing boom.  Property tax revenue plunged as the city’s foreclosure rate climbed to the second-highest in the country.  Saddled with a large inventory of unoccupied homes and mired in hundreds of millions—if not billions—in debt, the city has had difficulty recovering.

Orrick’s work with Stockton is not done, Levinson says.  The bankruptcy judge must file an official order of confirmation, and the city must transfer assets and recast its bonds.  After that, Franklin Templeton, which will receive about $300,000 on $3.2 million in unsecured debt for a loan it made to Stockton in 2009, can appeal within 14 days of the confirmation order.

Orrick’s public finance partner John Knox in San Francisco is also advising the city’s municipal government on its restructuring efforts.  The Am Law Daily previously reported that Levinson and Knox led a team from the firm that pulled in more than $11 million in fees for their efforts guiding Vallejo, Calif. through its own Chapter 9 filing that ended in July 2011.

Stockton’s woes pale in comparison to Detroit, which filed for Chapter 9 protection in July 2013 to become the largest U.S. city in history to declare bankruptcy.  The Am Law Daily reported earlier this month that the bill for Detroit’s lead counsel Jones Day alone had reached $47 million through March.  The Motor City’s bankruptcy trial came to close this week and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes is expected to rule on its exit plan on Nov. 7.